Article by Hannah Carroll Harris // Apr. 16, 2020
Creatives the world over have been finding alternative ways to adapt their practices to the stringent constraints of our new socially-distant lives, with many turning to social media to share their innovative home-bound handiwork. Finding inspiration in isolation, artist Max Siedentopf has turned the everyday objects of his new-found domestic studio into both the material and subject of his Covid art-making venture, creating a handy survival guide for us to follow along at home.
‘Home Alone Survival Guide’, Max Siedentopf, 2020 // Courtesy Hatje Cantz publishers, © Max Siedentopf
Turning his home upside-down and capturing the results with his camera, he makes haute-couture clothes from egg-cartons, paints with toothpaste and piles aluminium cans into sculptural towers. After publishing all of his actions on Instagram, he invited followers all over the world to copy his various mottos, providing useful and informative instructions such as “avoid shaking hands by using sausages for fingers.”
‘Home Alone Survival Guide’, Max Siedentopf, 2020 // Courtesy Hatje Cantz publishers, © Max Siedentopf
‘Home Alone Survival Guide’, Max Siedentopf, 2020 // Courtesy Hatje Cantz publishers, © Max Siedentopf
Whether your isolation is self-imposed or state-sanctioned, this highly practical survival guide consists of different chapters that inject playful humour into the often very dull reality of life under lockdown. From experimental replacements for toilet paper to new meals, highlights from the series, which now exceeds one thousand photos, have been compiled into the new ‘Home Alone: A Survival Guide’. To both inspire and quell the boredom, this guide is currently available from Hatje Cantz publishers as an eBook and will soon be available in hardcopy.
We’re giving one Berlin Art Link reader the opportunity to add this guide to their bookshelf, for free. To enter our giveaway, follow the instructions below.
Giveaway Instructions
Follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram, like the corresponding post, and tag a friend in a comment.
Purchase Info
If you don’t want to take your chances, the book is also available to purchase online at hatjecantz.de
‘Home Alone Survival Guide’, Max Siedentopf, 2020 // Courtesy Hatje Cantz publishers, © Max Siedentopf
